Západočeská univerzita v Plzni Fakulta filozofická Bakalářská práce STREET ART IN BRITISH CULTURE Kateřina Blacká Plzeň 2017 Západočeská univerzita v Plzni Fakulta filozofická Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury Studijní program Filologie Studijní obor Cizí jazyky pro komerční praxi Kombinace angličtina – němčina Bakalářská práce STREET ART IN BRITISH CULTURE Kateřina Blacká Vedoucí práce: Mgr. et Mgr. Jana Kašparová Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury Fakulta filozofická Západočeské univerzity v Plzni Plzeň 2017 Prohlašuji, že jsem práci zpracovala samostatně a použila jen uvedených pramenů a literatury. Plzeň, 28. dubna 2017 .......................................... Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. et Mgr. Jana Kašparová, for her professional guidence, patience, useful advice and continuial support. Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 2 PUBLIC ART, STREET ART, GRAFFITI ................................................................... 2 2.1 Public Art ..................................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Street Art ...................................................................................................................... 3 2.3 Graffiti ......................................................................................................................... 4 3 TYPES OF STREET ART .............................................................................................. 5 3.1 Tags .......................................................................................................................... 5 3.2 Mural ........................................................................................................................ 5 3.3 Stencils ..................................................................................................................... 6 3.4 Stickers ..................................................................................................................... 6 3.5 Wheatpaste ............................................................................................................... 6 3.6 Yarn-Bombing .......................................................................................................... 6 3.7 Street Installations .................................................................................................... 6 3.8 Art Intervention ........................................................................................................ 7 3.9 Legal Walls .............................................................................................................. 7 4 THE HISTORY OF GRAFFITI WRITING AND STREET ART .............................. 8 4.1 The Origins of Graffiti Writing ................................................................................... 8 4.2 The Origins of Street Art ........................................................................................... 10 4.3 The Beginnings of Street Art and Graffiti in Great Britain ....................................... 12 5 FEMME FIERCE FESTIVAL ...................................................................................... 13 5.1 Three years with Femme Fierce ................................................................................. 14 5.1.1 The year of 2014 ................................................................................................. 14 5.1.2 The year of 2015 ................................................................................................. 14 5.1.3 The year of 2016 ................................................................................................. 15 5.2 Benefits Brought by Femme Fierce on the Street Art Scene ..................................... 16 6 SIGNIFICANT FEMALE CHARACTERS OF THE BRITISH STREET ART SCENE ................................................................................................................................ 17 6.1 Zabou ......................................................................................................................... 17 6.2 CBloxx and Aylo of Nomad Clan .............................................................................. 18 6.3 Boxhead ..................................................................................................................... 20 6.4 Zina ............................................................................................................................ 20 6.5 Fio Silva ..................................................................................................................... 21 7 PRACTICAL PART ...................................................................................................... 23 7.1 Dictionary .................................................................................................................. 23 8 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 33 9 ENDNOTES .................................................................................................................... 35 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 41 10.1 Print Sources ............................................................................................................ 41 10.2 Internet Sources ....................................................................................................... 41 10.3 Movie sources .......................................................................................................... 46 10.4 Sources of pictures in appendices ............................................................................ 46 11 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 49 12 RESUMÉ ....................................................................................................................... 50 13 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 51 13.1 List of Appendices ................................................................................................... 51 1 INTRODUCTION The bachelor thesis deals with a current topic of Street Art, specifically in British culture, as Britain belongs among the leading countries of the worldwide street art scene. It is still widely believed that street art is an area dominated by men, therefore the thesis aims to try to refuse the theory and introduce the work of female street artists only, in order to bring them more into focus of the broader public and people interested in street art as well as to narrow the discussed theme. The topic was chosen due to the author´s personal interest in street art and art in general, which is reflected by the nature of the appendices, mainly the appendices 1 and 2 to chapters 2.3 Graffiti and 3 Types of street art, that partly comprises pictures taken by the author herself. The thesis consists of two main parts, the theoretical and the practical one, which are further divided into seven main chapters and several subchapters. First, the theoretical part aims to define the most important terms related to the subject, such as graffiti, street art, public art and particular types of streeet art, which help to a better understanding of the theme. Following chapters provide a brief look at the worldwide and British history of graffiti and street art, the most significant characters of the British scene and Femme Fierce festival, all female event held in London contributing to popularizing female street art. These chapters allow the reader a better orientation on the current scene. The practical part focuses more on linguistic aspect of the theme, introducing the language used within the street art and graffiti subculture in a form of a practical dictionary. The dictionary explains meanings of chosen terms in the language of street art and graffiti and where possible, it provides closest equivalents in standard English to point out the ethymology of the term. The artists use a unique language that might be incomprehensible to the outsiders of the subculture, therefore the purpose is to further explain the chosen terms to English readers and provide a comparison of both meanings. The thesis is based mainly on online sources as the internet plays an important role in popularizing street art and informing about the theme, allowing the artists to share their work with the public online. However, the printed sources, mainly Graffiti and Street Art by Anna Wacławek and Street Art World by Alison Young are an important part of the research, too. The nature of both these printed sources is related to the theme, too, as the authors are women, therefore it contains a female outlook on the theme. 1 2 PUBLIC ART, STREET ART, GRAFFITI The chapter discusses and further explains the concepts of street art, public art and graffiti and leads to a better understanding of the topics discussed in the bachelor thesis. It is important to define all three terms as they are closely related, often sharing their histories. Especially, when speaking of street art and graffiti, one should realize their differences as they are often mixed with each other. The here provided definitions and descriptions are far